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<title>On Wednesdays We Wear Pink (Unless You're Alex Who Always Wears Pink) by stayeven</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27443284">On Wednesdays We Wear Pink (Unless You're Alex Who Always Wears Pink)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/stayeven/pseuds/stayeven'>stayeven</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, alex talks about being gay in the ninties, flynn luke and reggie are all very very very breifly mentioned, inspired by a tumblr post about alex saying netflix and chill literally, no beta we die like men, or like 3/4ths of sunset curve</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:28:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,914</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27443284</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/stayeven/pseuds/stayeven</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey Julie, do you mind if I borrow your laptop sometime soon? Willie and I were talking today and we just want to watch Netflix and chill one of these days.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, you want to what now?!”</p><p>OR<br/>Alex learns to adjust to the changes in society with the help of Willie, both on purpose and accidentally.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>345</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>On Wednesdays We Wear Pink (Unless You're Alex Who Always Wears Pink)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this was supposed to be super quick and lighthearted and it still kinda is but i just really telling lgbtq+ history so that got away from me a little.</p><p>this was inspired by both a tumblr post talking about alex saying netflix and chill and meaning it literally without knowing the context and also by an extremely well written fic about the sunset curve boys (minus bobby) going to a '94 Dookie concert/listening to coming clean by green day: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27093028</p><p>obvs i don't own these characters, they belong to netflix</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex and Willie are hanging out by the beach, sitting on a park bench and watching all the pedestrians walk past. They’d been there for hours now, talking about everything and nothing now that they had the time to without the threat of Caleb’s marks looming over their heads. Just as Alex is finishing up a fake backstory about a woman that had just passed by in a large fur coat despite the warm weather, Willie interrupts.</p><p>“Hey hotdog, I totally forgot about this but there’s a cool little skatepark down the way if you want to try it out a bit?”</p><p>Alex laughs in response, Willie has tried and failed to get him on his board at least four times now. “I make no guarantees, but I’ll come if you show me some tricks?”</p><p>“Deal, let’s go!” Willie stands and holds his hand out to Alex to help him up. Alex takes it and once he stands up fully, Willie winds their fingers together. They share a smile and then start on their way up the road. The street is crowded and while they can phase through people, they can’t quite do the same for the benches and street-level business signs, so it’s not quite the casual stroll they were hoping for.</p><p>Alex squeezes Willie’s hand between them and looks over at him smiling. “I never thought I’d be able to do this, you know?” He says wistfully. Willie turns to him with curiosity in his eyes and Alex takes this as a cue to continue. “Back before we died, being gay wasn’t quite a death sentence but it was definitely social suicide. Even just walking how we are now, we already would have had countless slurs hurled at us at the very least. I know you know all of this already, hell you lived through it too, but I still can’t believe how much the world’s changed.”</p><p>“I know, it’s a huge difference especially with you seeing it change essentially overnight, I was at least around to see all of the small steps that were made.” Willie smiles up at him and lifts their hands to kiss Alex’s. Alex feels his face heat up, but the gesture only fuels his amazement.</p><p>“See! We never would have been able to do this before. Did I ever tell you about when we saw Green Day back in ’94?”</p><p>Willie shakes his head and Alex takes a deep breath in an attempt to steady himself.</p><p>“Okay so, in ’94, <em>Dookie</em> had just come out and all of us, even Bobby, somehow got tickets to see them. All of us adored that album, but there was one song, <em>Coming Clean</em>, I don’t know If you know it, but it is so clearly about coming out. I latched onto it, my parents were – are – extremely homophobic, and this song was the only thing that made me feel seen. I remember being so excited for that concert.</p><p>“They had this opening band Pansy Division, who was an openly queer rock band. I didn’t know until I got there but once I heard the lyrics, I was blown away. Here was a rock band singing about everything I never thought I’d be able to experience. Unfortunately, when I started to hear what they were singing about, so did everyone else. So many audience members started heckling them, yelling slurs I’d rather never hear again, and I think someone threw something onstage? Billie Joe Armstrong called them out for it later but that still stuck with me. I came out to the boys that night, I was an absolute mess and they thought it was because of the chaos and my anxiety, I just barely managed to choke out the words in the back of Bobby’s mom’s minivan.”</p><p>“Oh babe, I’m so sorry.” Willie says as he pulls Alex into a tight hug. They stay like that, clutching at each other in the middle of the sidewalk with countless lifers passing through them, for several moments before Alex pulls away and kisses Willie’s cheek.</p><p>“Thank you.” Alex says softly.</p><p>“Of course,” Willie replies, “I like hearing about your life, even all the parts that aren’t so happy. You’re important to me and I’ll always be here to listen, okay?” Alex nods. “Now c’mon, think I can get you on a skateboard?”</p><p>“No.” Alex responds, laughing and shaking his head, before pulling on Willie’s hand and continuing down the road.</p><p>They walk in companionable silence for a while until Willie almost crashes into a chalkboard sign advertising a small café. Alex pulls him away at the last second and then takes a look at the sign. Drawn on the sign is an orange cartoon camel holding a coffee with a speech bubble saying Happy Hump Day! and Alex laughs and points it out to Willie.</p><p>Willie laughs at it then looks back to Alex before his gaze drops to Alex’s chest. Willie then pokes him and saying “Hey, on Wednesdays we wear pink!”</p><p>Alex looks down confused, he’s wearing his standard ensemble of his pink Champion hoodie and jean jacket.</p><p>“But I wear this every day, Willie? I don’t see why Wednesdays are any different?”</p><p>Alex looks up to see realization dawn on Willie’s face and only has a second to wonder what that’s about before Willie exclaims, “Dude, of course, you’ve never seen Mean Girls! It came out after you died and I don’t think you’ve had time to catch up on any movies with everything going on.”</p><p>Alex shakes his head and feels a smile grow on his face as Willie starts listing all of the movies he needs to catch up on. He interrupts after Willie’s mentioned at least ten movies he’s never heard of in quick succession.</p><p>“Sounds like there’s a lot, maybe we could make a day of it?” Willie’s smile grows at the suggestion.</p><p>“I would really like that, hotdog.” Willie drops Alex’s hand in favour of cupping his cheek and pulling him down for a quick, chaste kiss. “A lot of these are on Netflix, do you think Julie would mind if we stole her laptop for an afternoon? We could chill out in the studio and catch you up on 21st century pop culture.”</p><p>“I can definitely ask,” Alex takes Willie’s hand and continues, “Now let’s get to that skatepark, I want to see you do a kickflip.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Later that afternoon, Alex is alone in the studio and Luke and Reggie are somewhere in the Molina household when Julie comes into the studio after school. She drops her bag by the piano before plopping next to Alex on the couch.</p><p>“Tough day?” Alex asks, glancing over at her. Julie sighs in response.</p><p>“No, just long. You know those days that aren’t hard but you’re just so drained after them?”</p><p>“Yeah, those are the worst. Do you want anything?” Julie shakes her head and stretches out on the couch a little more. They sit in silence for a while, Julie with her eyes shut and Alex drumming a beat on the arm of the chair before Alex remembers the conversation he had with Willie earlier.</p><p>“Hey Julie,” Julie cracks open an eye to look at Alex. “Do you mind if I borrow your laptop sometime soon? Willie and I were talking today and we just want to watch Netflix and chill one of these days.”</p><p>Julie sits up straight immediately with both alarm and surprise written all over her face.</p><p>“I’m sorry, you want to what now?!” Julie blurts out.</p><p>Alex attempts to backpedal immediately, obviously he’s crossed a line he didn’t know was there, “If it’s that big of a deal, we don’t have to, we can totally use the TV in the house. Willie and I just thought staying in the studio might be the better bet in case any of your family members come home.”</p><p>Somehow, much to Alex’s bewilderment, Julie’s eyes get impossibly bigger and the alarm on her face grows more.</p><p>“That’s so much worse! No, you can’t use the living room, that’s just too weird!” Julie’s voice is getting louder in volume and Alex wracks his brain for anything he could’ve said to warrant this reaction, but comes up blank.</p><p>“Look, Julie, it’s really no big deal, I know boundaries are important to you and this is clearly crossing one. Willie just wanted to catch me up on all the movies I’ve apparently missed and we thought Netflix might be a good place to start. We don’t have to borrow anything, I’m sure we can find another way to watch them.”</p><p>Julie stares at him for a few seconds, her face completely blank and then all of a sudden, Julie bursts out laughing. She tries to start speaking but is laughing too hard every time to even begin.</p><p>“Okay, now I’m really confused. Is everything alright, Julie?” Julie looks up at Alex and finally calms down enough to talk.</p><p>“I thought you were saying something entirely different, Alex. Nowadays, ‘Netflix and Chill’ refers to hooking up rather than watching Netflix and hanging out with someone.”</p><p>“Oh!” Alex feels his face grow hot, and he’s sure he’s a darker shade of red than Reggie’s flannel. “That’s not what I meant at all, we literally just want to watch movies and chill out.”</p><p>“Yeah Alex, I get that now. You can absolutely borrow my laptop, I don’t want you to use the TV and have my dad walk in to see the remote floating and the TV flipping through different shows.” Alex nods his agreement. “How does Friday sound? I need my laptop at school tomorrow but shouldn’t need it then.”</p><p>“That sounds great Julie, thank you so much.” He hugs Julie awkwardly due to their legs being between them on the couch. “Also, uh, sorry for, um, mentally scarring you for a second there.” He says quietly as he pulls away.</p><p>“It’s all good, Alex,” Julie says, beaming at him. She then gets up and continues, “Anyway, I have calculus homework I have to finish, so I’m gonna head inside.”</p><p>“Thanks, Julie and see ya.” Alex says, watching Julie walk through the garage doors.</p><p>“Oh! And,” she exclaims, looking over her shoulder, “enjoy your Netflix and Chill!” She winks before swinging out of the doorway.</p><p>Alex laughs to himself but can feel the heat in his cheeks and the giddiness of the smile on his face.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Alex and Willie’s ‘Netflix and Actually Chill’ day comes and goes. Alex finally understands the wearing pink on Wednesday reference and what on Earth Julie and Flynn were talking about when Alex walking in on them discussing odd words like “Hufflepuff” and “Slytherin”.</p><p>Presently, Willie and Alex are walking down the same street they were when this whole fiasco started, or rather, Ales was walking and Willie was riding his board slow enough to keep pace with Alex. Their current discussion involved which Hogwarts houses their friends fit into.</p><p>“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you!” Alex starts, interrupting Willie’s argument as to why Luke was a Slytherin. “When I asked Julie to borrow her laptop, I told her we were going to ‘Netflix and Chill’.” Alex continues with a smile and a small laugh. Willie, on the other hand, stumbles off his board and would have fallen if it wasn’t for his and Alex’s linked hands.</p><p>As soon as he recovers, he looks up at Alex and says,</p><p>“You did WHAT NOW?” </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for reading!! (if you think this warrants higher than a G rating please let me know)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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